Dist 3 State Senate Republican candidate David Novstrup at the Brown County Fair

State Senator Al Novstrup and State Representative David Novstrup at the Brown County Fair. Photo by Ken Santema.

I was able to catch up with State Representative David Novstrup at the Brown County Fair. Novstrup is currently term limited in the House and is seeking to become elected as the State Senator for District 3. He faces Aberdeen council-member Mark Remily in the race for State Senator.

When I asked David Novstrup his top priority if he is sent to Pierre as a State Senator he said it is important to continue the same direction on economic development. Novstrup said economic development allows for a larger tax base. That larger tax base can be used to fund roads and social programs. He also said keeping a large tax base is important because it is easier to keep taxes at reasonable rates. Personally I’m not a fan of government controlled economic development, but I’ve talked with a lot of people at the Brown County Fair that would agree with Novstrup. His stance on economic development and trying to maintain current level of taxes may be a winner in District 3.

I then asked Novstrup about education funding. Novstrup would like to give more money to public education. But he stated it must not be done at the expense of other areas of the state budget that rely upon taxpayer dollars. He mentioned ASPIRE as an example of a program that does great work in the Aberdeen area and would be severely impacted if money was moved from there to education. David has mentioned ASPIRE many times in the past, and I agree it is a very good program. He also said it is important to make sure that any extra money going to education is done for a purpose. Novstrup would make sure any increases are qualified and further weighed against other appropriation items in the legislature. Legislatures looking to raise teacher pay may have opportunities to gain support from elected officials such as Novstrup if they find the right approach.

When I asked Novstrup about transportation funding he said he would like to wait to see the results of the summer study before going into any specifics. Novstrup did talk about the issue at a high level however. He would like to see counties and townships have more flexibility. He also thinks Pierre has to do something sooner than later. David stated it is much cheaper to maintain roads than to fix them. If Pierre waits to long to properly fund maintaining roads it may cost the state more money. He also pointed out that basically everyone depends on the roads. Once the summer study is done I’ll try to catch up with David Novstrup again (and all legislators whose district falls in Brown County). I think this will be a top issue over the next two legislative sessions.

Overall I would say David Novstrup is pretty safe in his bid for State Senate against Democrat Mark Remily. He will still have to work hard to ensure that victory. In the past I’ve been somewhat critical of David for being quiet and lackluster. But I would say that has changed somewhat. Going into the Senate race I think he has maybe gained a confidence he didn’t seem to have previously. It will be interesting to see if that will lead to a new approach as a State Senator compared to his time as a State Representative.